Police: Man shoots wife, self in west Killeen

Lavender Lane shooting

A woman cries out as she talks on the phone outside a residence in the 2800 block of Lavender Lane in Killeen as police investigate an apparent attempted murder-suicide Monday, December 31, 2012. A gunman shot his wife before turning the gun on himself. The shooter was declared dead at 12:36 p.m., and the wife is in critical condition at Scott & White Hospital in Temple.

Lavender Lane shooting

Family, friends and neighbors react as Killeen detectives investigate an apparent attempted murder-suicide at a residence in the 2800 block of Lavendar Lane in Killeen on Monday, Dec. 31. A gunman shot his wife before turning the gun on himself. The shooter was declared dead at 12:36 p.m. and the wife is in critical condition at Scott & White Hospital in Temple.

Lavender Lane shooting

Police talk to family, friends and neighbors as they investigate an apparent attempted murder-suicide at a residence in the 2800 block of Lavender Lane in Killeen on Monday, December 31, 2012. A gunman shot his wife before turning the gun on himself. The shooter was declared dead at 12:36 p.m., and his wife is in critical condition at Scott & White Hospital in Temple.

Lavender Lane shooting

An investigator photographs the scene as Killeen detectives investigate an apparent attempted murder-suicide at a residence in the 2800 block of Lavender Lane in Killeen on Monday, December 31, 2012. A gunman shot his wife before turning the gun on himself. The shooter was declared dead at 12:36 p.m., and his wife is in critical condition at Scott & White Hospital in Temple.

Lavender Lane shooting

A K-9 unit approaches as Killeen detectives investigate an apparent attempted murder-suicide at a residence in the 2800 block of Lavender Lane in Killeen on Monday, December 31, 2012. A gunman shot his wife before turning the gun on himself. The shooter was declared dead at 12:36 p.m., and his wife is in critical condition at Scott & White Hospital in Temple.

Lavender Lane shooting

A woman cries out as she talks on the phone outside a residence in the 2800 block of Lavender Lane in Killeen as police investigate an apparent attempted murder-suicide Monday, December 31, 2012. A gunman shot his wife before turning the gun on himself. The shooter was declared dead at 12:36 p.m., and the wife is in critical condition at Scott & White Hospital in Temple.

A Killeen man is dead and his wife seriously wounded after what police are calling an attempted murder-suicide.

Just before noon Monday, Killeen police received a 911 call from a woman who had been shot multiple times by her husband during a domestic dispute, police said.

Police believe that, after shooting his wife, a 65-year-old man turned the gun on himself in the bedroom of their southwest Killeen home in the 2800 block of Lavender Drive, Killeen Police Department spokeswoman Carroll Smith said.

The man was pronounced dead by Justice of the Peace Garland Potvin at 12:36 p.m.

The couple’s names have been withheld pending the KPD investigation.

The 54-year-old woman was transported to Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood and subsequently transported to Scott & White Hospital in Temple, where she remained in serious condition late Monday, Smith said.

“Domestic disputes are the most dangerous types of incidents that we respond to because of their volatile nature,” Smith said. “It is not something you want to end the year with.”

Monday’s incident was the only reported attempted murder-suicide in Killeen in 2012.

Two murder-suicides occurred in Killeen in 2011.

On Jan. 17, 2011, 15-year-old Ellison High School freshman Frederick Delano is believed to have killed his father, 39-year-old Vance Thomas Delano Jr., and then killed himself.

On April 28, 2011, 37-year-old Anthony L. Means shot his daughter, 5-year-old Nina Sheree Means, and then turned the gun on himself in the 2100 block of Coach Drive in Killeen.